Zello’s Post

Summary: Lyft's recent earnings report blunder has garnered significant attention in the business world, prompting reflections from Will Valentine, the company's former head of communications. Despite the magnitude of the mistake, Valentine expresses surprise that such errors don't occur more frequently in large companies. Drawing from his extensive experience in managing earnings processes, he offers three key suggestions for enhancing the precision and reliability of such reports. Takeaway: In the high-stakes realm of earnings reports, meticulous attention to the process is crucial for transforming earnings season into a demonstration of reliability and precision. Hashtags: #Lyft #earningsreport #businessblunder #leadershipinsights #reliability #precision

Interesting read from Lyft's former head of communications on what it takes to put a quarterly earnings announcement together. It's an intense effort accross publicly traded organizations involving multiple functions and direct involvement by C-suite leaders. The "pens down rule" is key to allow for the time needed to finalize earnings annoucements with the precision that's required, but a tough practice to adhere to at times. https://lnkd.in/gg2Z2cAX

#mondaythought: Unpacking Lyft's PR Ups and Downs This weekend, I delved into Lyft's recent PR rollercoaster, and it's quite the intriguing tale. Here's the scoop in case you missed the drama: What went down: - On February 13, 2024, Lyft dropped its fourth-quarter 2023 earnings report. - An unfortunate typo claimed Lyft's profit margin would skyrocket by 500 basis points (5%) in 2024. Reality check: it was a mere 50 basis points (0.5%). - Panic ensued, shares shot up nearly 70% before the correction brought them down to a still-impressive 35% rise. Implications: - The typo triggered a frenzy in the stock market, driven by automated trading. - Despite the blunder, Lyft's actual performance surpassed expectations, boosting investor confidence. - This incident raised eyebrows about internal checks and balances and reliance on technology. Current scene: - Lyft owned up to the mistake, emphasizing its dedication to accurate reporting. - The initial chaos has simmered down, but the incident lingers in discussions. - The lasting impact on Lyft's reputation and future remains uncertain. This case underscores the ripple effects of misinformation in financial markets and stresses the importance of precision in earnings reports. While the hiccup caused a stir, it's vital to assess the broader financial landscape and Lyft's response. Key takeaways: - Transparency wins: Always triple-check before hitting send. Accuracy reigns supreme, and swift acknowledgment of mistakes is key. - Trust is sacred: Build confidence through consistent, reliable information. Address concerns directly, and share your narrative proactively. - Crisis mode: Have a comms strategy in place for rough patches. Act swiftly, focus on solutions, and show you're on top of it. - Tech caution: Know your tech's limits; human oversight is irreplaceable. Prepare for glitches with backup plans because, let's face it, tech hiccups happen. Bonus advice: Tailor your message to your audience—investors crave clarity, vision, and honesty. Cut the jargon and serve them straight facts. #communications #mediarelations #investorrelations #crisiscommunications #financialmarkets #reputationmanagement #publicrelations #pragency #pressrelease

Perceptual Advisors LLC #FortheWin Week of Feb 12-16, 2024 What’s the deal: Lyft (Nasdaq: LYFT) announced their Q4 and full-year 2023 earnings on February 13, and what initially looked like an epic mistake turned into a masterclass on how to deal with a #crisis. What they got right in their comms: Mistakes happen, but most of the time, they don’t happen in earning’s announcements. They are expected to be right - every single time. That didn’t happen at Lyft this week. A misplaced decimal point resulted in a 60% surge in their stock price, and the story of Lyft’s mistake quickly overshadowed an otherwise positive announcement. Fortunately, the comms and executive teams nailed the crisis response. Lyft’s CFO Erin Brewer immediately corrected the mistake on the earning’s call. Lyft’s CEO David Risher owned the mistake, literally saying “it’s on me” in follow-up media interviews. By taking accountability and moving fast to correct the error – two fundamental rules for #crisiscommunications – the story shifted positively to Lyft’s good quarter and how they effectively responded to the situation. Behind the scenes, Lyft’s comms team successfully turned a negative event into a positive one, and that’s always the desired outcome of a #crisisresponse . What’s the watch out: Lyft will undertake an exhaustive post-mortem to identify how this problem happened and how to prevent it from ever happening again. But despite having the best processes in place and the best people handling high stakes communications events, mistakes will happen. When they occur, it’s equally important to have a process for quickly and effectively correcting those mistakes in order to limit the reputation damage, and in some cases, real financial damage. Act fast, be accountable, fix the problem. Lyft embraced that approach, and the results speak for themselves - the stock is still up and their reputation is intact. For these reasons, we recognize Lyft #FortheWin. (Disclaimer: Lyft is not a Perceptual Advisors LLC client) https://lnkd.in/gqbJzwsN

Last week was Passetto's first company off-site in Austin, TX 🤠 We used the time to brainstorm, check in on strategic initiatives, plan, and enjoy some delicious food. Since only three of us are at the company, if two people are in the same city, hosting an all-company meeting just makes sense. Here’s what our agenda looked like: 🍽️ Team Dinner 👉 2024 Strategic Initiatives Review 👉 Revenue Plan Updates & Modeling 👉 Product Planning & Roadmap 🍽️ Lunch 👉 Customer Journey and Offer Brainstorm 👉 Hiring plan and timing 👀 🤓 Sidney/Trevor technical working session 🍽️ Team Dinner 🤓 🍽️ Working discussion over brunch 📅 Action items finalized and assigned asyncrousouly We did more in a 6-hour working session than I thought we would. We had more time planned for the following day but used it for work or free time. It is not about how much you work but how effective you are. In a three-person company, things move quickly, so it is crucial to check in and ensure everyone is aligned on short-term initiatives and long-term vision. We're ready to keep the momentum going and finish 2024 strong 💪 #gtm #b2b #companyoffsite

Whoa, I think this is my first post on LinkedIn…*cracks knuckles TLDR: Unfortunately, I was one of many that had been impacted by the layoffs at Lightspeed last week. I’m openly looking for work! 😁 RTFA (I googled “opposite of TLDR” to find this acronym literally today):  So this journey started in the summer of 2018. I was looking for something fresh and with the help of a recruiter we came across a little company called Vend. I was immediately captivated during my interview by the fact that everyone was in very casual clothing and there was music playing. Very different than anything I've ever seen in an office. Also, I wasn’t completely shunned after my interviewers shook my very sweaty hands, IYKYK. I was eager to get started in the sales roll and went in with an open mind. One of the first emails I received while working was actually someone who was leaving Vend 😛. Something that stood out in their ‘goodbye’ email was that they said, “Once a Vender Always a Vender”. I’ll be completely honest, at first, I thought that was cringy. “It's just a job?”, I thought. After a few months I was happily proven wrong. This was such a cool place! More than just a job. The work was fulfilling & rewarding, the people we’re absolutely 👨🍳💋 and we celebrated the hell out of our wins…and there were a LOT! On top of all that there was serious culture. You had to be there. Fast forward a few years to when Lightspeed acquired Vend. I saw this as an opportunity. More work to be done, more people to meet, more celebrations! I was happy that I went with my gut and stayed around. A couple years later I took an opportunity that was presented to me to move into Partnership Enablement within Lightspeed. This broadened my horizons immensely. There were so many parts of the business I had never seen or understood. I took on a challenge and can confidently say that I thrived in it. Sadly, the journey had to come to an end last week. I know that all the talented individuals who were affected will land on their feet. I never had intentions to leave but sometimes events like this are exactly the push we need to really challenge ourselves. I need to give credit to all the leaders I have worked with over the years. Kevin Kim, Ryan Hiscox, Nathan Stone, Geordie Kingsbury (no autocorrect this time :P), Rida R. and lastly Katia Martens. I can consider myself a very lucky man being able to work with these individuals. In my eyes, they are the mold of what an exemplary leader should be. Thank you! To all the leaders I've worked with indirectly, Thank you! To every team member that has tolerated my insane emoji game, the biggest THANK YOU! 💚 The next little while will really teach me who I am and what I’m capable of. It's kind of exciting, scary and emotional all around. I look forward to seeing what's out there and to seeing what I can do. ok bye.

The Yellow Fish turns 8 today!! Happy Birthday to Cohley. I'll give you 8 random thoughts / highlights that've popped into my head today as I've reflected back on our first 8 years doing this.... 1. The most rewarding part of the journey is doing it with great colleagues. Hat tip to my friend and co-founder Erik Graber, who's both the smartest and most relentless person I know. And thank you to Landon Sturm, who's the heart and soul of the company. 2. We may have quit after a year if we hadn't landed an agreement with Kohl's. Our champion on that deal was none other than our longest tenured and one of our most valuable employees, Jennifer Wang. 3. Happy customers create more customers, and our Customer Success function is nothing short of elite. Among the commitments that the CS team makes is that we visit our top customers in person, regardless of whether they're here in NYC or in rural Ohio. That, along with a million other small but important things, make that team special. (CC: Erin McCarthy) 4. Our early hires were either crazy or borderline masochists for agreeing to join a company of our size, lacking any sort of structure or formal training. They helped set the culture, got us up and running, and a handful of them are still with us years later. (CC: David Hughes). 5. We've been beyond lucky with our investors. After a F&F round, Dave Lambert at Right Side Capital Management has led or co-led every round we've done. Dave's been hugely influential and supportive from the beginning, and he took a chance on us when we didn't even know how to calculate MRR properly (embarrassing). In the last few years Pat Matthews at Active Capital has been another stabilizing, thoughtful, and encouraging voice in our board room. 6. The most important development in Cohley's 8 year history (so far) was identifying our ICP. I love SMBs, but a few years ago it became clear that our offering fit 100X better with consumer brands doing north of $10M/yr. Our cohort-specific data has gotten a lot more precise since that binary split was identified, but putting ourselves in a position to get net revenue retention to 100%+ is the reason we are where we are today. 7. We're nothing without our extensive community of Creators. Thanks to Michelle Green for being a strong advocate for the Creator, going out of her way to spend time and energy making sure that their UX is as simple and effective as it can be. 8. It took me a years to realize this, but going all-in on a startup requires sacrifice and support from the families of everyone involved. The days can be agonizing, and we're not the type of company that leaves their laptops at work. My wife Allison has been hugely supportive, playing out scenarios and thinking through tough situations with even after her long days working at a charter school while also taking care of baby Maggie. Thanks to everyone that's contributed to this special run, I couldn't fit everyone in here but you know who you are.

I’m terrible at doing my job!   207 days ago, Rob Dance asked: “So, you in?”   But I didn’t realise just how “in” I would actually be. My role has transcended its mere title, and guess what? I wouldn't have it any other way! The thing is, staying in my lane is not exactly my strong suit (despite the occasional reminder). —> If there's an opportunity beyond my job description, consider me not just interested but fully invested. —> Spot an unkindness beyond my team? I won't just notice it; I'll address it. —> Identify a problem? Consider me already thinking up solutions. As it turns out, having less-than-perfect lane control is a superpower when you're crafting something from the ground up. And, that's precisely what I've been doing these past months—collaborating with the brightest future talents to bring to life a revolutionary SaaS platform: WARE. Just like me, Ware refuses to be confined to a single lane. We’re building the way for you and your businesses to manage and automate every system that your employee works from (and trust me, we're not stopping there). Intrigued? You absolutely should be 😉 Secure your spot on the list at ware.com because more updates are coming your way very soon! #saascommunity #newgeneration #saasproduct

This is the biggest (and last 😱) news I’m sharing as CEO of Front. I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve hired Dan O'Connell to become Front’s next CEO 🙌 https://lnkd.in/gSWXPd5j If I had to draw the shape of the perfect CEO for our next stage, I’d want (from most to least obvious): - A curious, caring, assertive, and ambitious individual - An outstanding operator with a proven track-record - Familiar with the customer service software market - With experience in efficient growth over $100M ARR - Who has built and sold AI products for many years  - And been CEO of a startup before! - And taken over from a founder before!! Dan is all this, and so much more. He’s one of only 2 people I’ve met in the past 10 years and thought: wow, I’d love to work for him. He is an incredibly thoughtful person, with highly contagious energy. His standards are high, he is all at once fiercely competitive and fun to be around (and an amazing singer-guitarist that you can see perform live in SF). I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built over the past 10 years. I’m also proud to pass the torch when Front’s momentum is in full swing: we’re hitting above our goals, we’re hiring across all teams, and we’re shipping the most innovative stuff in years. Better yet: there’s more to come. And, of course, that’s a very emotional moment for me. I’ve poured ten years of my life into this company, trying to get the perfect blend of ambition and care, and I like to think I’ve been mostly successful at that. I love this company more than words can tell. This is why I’m not going far either: I’ll take on the role of Executive Chair, and continue working for our beloved customers. Dan, I give you my most intricate, powerful, precious LEGO set to date. Make of it something even better!